Friday, 27 February 2015

How to Make Paper Flowers

There are some beautiful flower tutorials on the web and today, I'm offering a paper rose pattern I tried out over the last weekend. It's simple and can be adapted to create a variety of open and closed flower designs [whether they accurately resemble a rose or not....].

What I Used:

Red A4 Card
Template
Glue Gun
Ruler / Scissors / Pencil

[right click and save to your computer to print]

Cut out the template shapes - two circles, seven petals, and the curved strip [cut into 5 sections]:

To start, I created a bud. Cut the smaller circle in to a spiral with your scissors.

Do the same to the larger circle, however; curve your spiral lines:

To the small circle, begin to roll from the outside in, following the curve of the spiral until you

reach the centre to form a bud. Fix in place with tape or glue:

With the second, larger circle, this wraps around the bud - if you wrap loosely, it will form a small flower [which you can then use, with the creation of several more to form a beautiful small bouquet] to then add petals to:

....or wrapped a little tighter, will add to the bud and form a tight structure to add petal to. For the my first flower, I'm going with a tight structure:

[but you can see the full effect of a loose wrap towards the end of the post]

To create movement in the petals, use a round pencil [or anything you have with a tight curve]

to help form the card around to create curls in the edges of the petals. I also cut the base of a few to help me shape them around the bud without causing folds in the card:

Once all the petals have been curved, start fixing them in place, starting at the base of the bud and working your way around, overlapping the petals to help create the form of an opening flower [I also found having a google image to help me really useful in the placement of the petals]:

Once you have added as many petals as you like [use the template to cut more if needed],

I moved on to the more angular petal, created by cutting the strip petals and folding and gluing in

place the cuts to the base:

I also and cut small indents that would help me place the petals around the base of the flower and shape them according to how open or closed I wanted them to look:

Begin gluing the petals in place around the base:

...forming them until you are happy with the overall shape of the flower:

For final detail, curve any petals:

...and your flower is complete:

...and just to show you the difference by gluing the petals in a more 'open' formation:

see you next time x

If you're interested in paper craft, or trying out a flower design yourself, have an experiment - there are no end of designs, colours and materials. Here are two other easy flower crafts: